According to a report published on Thursday by the US General Inspectorate for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (Sigar), the number of Taliban attacks has doubled since the Doha agreement on US troop withdrawal.
The administration of then US President Donald Trump concluded an agreement with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020 to end the longest war effort in US history. The US relied on peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government. However, these talks have remained without any tangible result to this day, while the United States has started its troop withdrawal on schedule and intends to complete it by the end of August. At the same time, the Islamists went on the offensive.
Taliban on the rise
According to the Sigar report, the number of attacks by the radical Islamic Taliban rose from 6,700 in a three-month period in early 2020 to 13,242 between September and November last year. Since then, the number has been more than 10,000 in each subsequent three-month period.
The death toll also increased significantly: According to the report, 510 civilians were killed between January and March 2020. In the third quarter of 2020 that number rose to 1,058. The latest data showed 705 civilian fatalities for April and May of this year alone.
The Afghan government is facing an “existential crisis” if this trend is not reversed, said Inspector General John Sopko. In contrast to the “widespread over-optimism”, the report presents a sobering picture. “The news coming from Afghanistan this quarter is grim,” the report sums up.
In parallel with the rapid withdrawal of US and other NATO troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban had conquered large parts of the country in recent months. The Afghan army was “surprised and unprepared” and is now on the defensive, the report said. Particularly worrying is the speed at which the insurgents have also taken provinces in the north of the country, traditionally a stronghold of opponents of the Taliban.
The Islamists now control around half of the approximately 400 districts in Afghanistan. Observers fear that after the complete withdrawal of international troops, the Taliban could fully regain power in the Hindu Kush. However, since the withdrawal there has been an increase in refugee movements from Afghanistan to neighboring regions and Europe.
